'L'Afrique Françoise ou du Senegal'. French West Africa. DE L’ISLE, 1727 map
Artist/engraver/cartographer: Guillaume de l'Isle. Provenance: The map was extracted from a composite atlas of early 18th century maps, the latest of which was dated c1754. Type: Large antique 18th century atlas map, printed on thick, good quality paper with original outline hand colour/color and decorative title & scale cartouches. This large eighteenth century map shows the coast of West Africa and its hinterland between Ras Nouadhibou (marked with its French name of Cap Blanc) which is today on the border between Mauritania and Western Sahara, and Conakry, the capital of present day Guinea, to the south of Cape Verga. It includes the coastline of the present day countries of Mauritania, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and part of Guinea. The courses of the Senegal and Gambia rivers are charted, although in common with many cartographers of the time, de l'Isle confuses the Niger and Senegal rivers; the Senegal river is named as "Riviere du Senegal ou Niger". Timbuktu and the Niger river itself (named on the map as the "Guien Riviere") are marked on the extreme right hand side of the map. Further to the south, the fictitious "Lac de Sapert" is shown as the source of the Gambia River. The Cap-Vert (the site of the city of Dakar) is shown; Île de Gorée is marked, as is the Fort & Île St-Louis further to the north. The map is indicated to have been published posthumously by de l'Isle's widow.
Size: 7687px × 6162px
Location: West Africa
Photo credit: © Antiqua Print Gallery / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1727, 18th, africa, afrique, antique, atlas, c1754, carte, cartouches, century, color, colour, composite, early, eighteenth, francoise, françoise, french, guillaume, hand, isle, map, maps, original, outline, paper, printed, scale, senegal, thick, title, vintage, west, ’isle
